When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Lauderdale County in March, the thought of shutting down never crossed the mind of Jermaine Harris.

Harris, director of operations at the Boys and Girls Club of East Mississippi, set out to ensure local children were still being fed, preparing and delivering meals to those in the community.

“Since the very first day after spring break and the coronavirus took a hold of every state, every county, every city and every community, we took it upon ourselves to go ahead and make sure that we were still providing meals because there are so many children that are in need of meals,” Haris said.

The Essentials

Since the middle of March, many of our neighbors have been stuck at home while another group has been working full throttle to meet the demands placed on the community by COVID-19.

While everyone and all good work is important, many of those who continued to meet those demands at their workplace became known as “essential workers.”

Through the remainder of June, we will be profiling some of the people who stepped up in the last several weeks in a series we call “The Essentials.” We hope you enjoy their stories. 

If you’d like to recommend someone for this series or a future profile, please tell us about them in an email at editor@themeridianstar.com.

“We knew the need was there and we knew the need was going to be great, so we knew we needed to do something to go ahead and not just help the kids we serve, but all the children.”

Over the last three months, Harris has led the effort in providing 1,200 daily meals to kids in need with schools shut down, supplying breakfast and lunch. Initially, the Boys and Girls Club of East Mississippi partnered with the Meridian Public School District to hand out meals, but after a member of the MPSD became infected with the coronavirus, the district had to shut down its service, he said.

Harris and his team of volunteers, however, kept going.

“We didn’t shut down. We just picked up the slack, and we’ve been doing meals to this very day,” Harris said.  “We don’t do it because we’re looking for a trophy. We do it because we know it’s the right thing to do.”

The Boys and Girls Club of East Mississippi has maintained strict precautions when preparing and delivering meals, which includes temperature checks when entering the building, thoroughly washing hands and wearing gloves, masks and aprons. It’s part of the effort to ensure they themselves don’t get sick, Harris said, but it’s ultimately so children can keep receiving food. 

“We can’t take anything for granted because all it takes is for one person to contract the virus, and then we’ve got to shut down for 14-15 days. That’s 14-15 days we know kids are without meals, so that’s why we take it seriously,” Harris said. “We do what we’ve got to do, not just to go home to the ones we love, which is so important, but to make sure we can continue to be vital to the kids that we serve on an everyday basis.”